Intel just launched its most impressive NUC mini PC, introducing the Windows 10 Grass Canyon NUC with neat specs and features for its $255 price tag.
While Intel NUC mini PCs have been around for years, most of these systems didn't really have much on them other than a processor. The systems didn't come with any RAM or operating system (OS), so consumers basically got a barebones computer to build upon.
This all changes with the latest Intel Grass Canyon NUC, which comes as a complete mini PC with RAM, storage, and OS and everything. First of all, the latest Intel NUC mini computer comes with Microsoft's Windows 10 pre-installed out of the box, marking an important step forward for the NUC lineup.
In terms of specifications, the Intel Grass Canyon NUC packs a quad-core Intel Pentium N3700 Braswell processor under the hood, combined with 2 GB of RAM. The mini PC further comes with 32 GB of eMMC storage on board and has a drive bay that allows users to add an extra hard drive or SSD if they want more storage capacity.
"Intel® NUC Mini PC NUC5PGYH is the first offered as a complete system by Intel. A complete Mini PC in a tiny but mighty package, this Intel® NUC with a quad-core Intel® Pentium processor delivers the same performance and visuals you can get in a full sized tower," Intel notes on the product overview.
The Intel Grass Canyon NUC also comes with a slew of ports including four USB 3.0, VGA, HDMI, as well as Gigabit Ethernet, and has a headphone/TOSLINK jack on its rear and a headset hack on its front. The rear headphone jack supports 5.1 channel output. Rounding up the feature list are Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth connectivity, and an SDXC card slot.
If the 2 GB of RAM that come standard are insufficient, the Grass Canyon NUC supports up to 8 GB of RAM. On the software side, the system ships with Windows 10 but it also has official support for Windows 8, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Fedora, OpenSUSE, as well as Android.
This complete mini PC is ready to start running as soon as you plug in a monitor, mouse and keyboard, and it measures just 4.5 x 4.4 x 2 inches.
The new Intel Grass Canyon NUC may not be the cheapest mini PC out there, but it's the first one in Intel's lineup to ship with complete specs. Nevertheless, customers who would rather get a barebones model have this option as well.
Both the complete Intel Grass Canyon NUC mini PC and the barebones model are now available for purchase from Amazon. The fully-equipped model costs $255 and is ready to ship, while the barebones version retails for around $180 and may take one or two extra days to process.
For more details, head over to the product page on Intel's website.
